Where is Barneo?

This is where we should land on April 8:Ice Base Barneo - here is an excerpt of April 3 Barneo Chronicle from staff there:April 3, 2011Coordinates: 89° 06' 499'' N, 115°12'027'' E.

According to the morning report from Barneo, 400 meters of the airstrip are ready. The team needs another 24 hours to prepare the runway for airplanes to land. The ice is described as “difficult” – much of the work has to be done with ice shovels. Just like last year, there are three tractor drivers working in shifts.

Yesterday, helicopters ferried all of the fuel over to the base camp and the Zhalyuzi-2 point ceased to exist. The weather at Barneo is good, with a temperature of -30 °C and a wind of 3-4 m/sec. Skies are clear.

The Il-76 needs to make one more drop of fuel at Barneo, but conditions in Murmansk have deteriorated again – wind, rain mixed with snow, and very low clouds.

Winds are also raging in Longyearbyen, literally knocking people off their feet. The temperature is -12 °C. Yesterday we had some guests at our office. Norwegian guide Inge Solheim came with a team of four British veterans led by Prince Harry, who is a patron of the Walking With The Wounded charity organization. We had some tea and talked. We told them about the Barneo base camp, which will be their starting point, and they told us about their planned expedition to the North Pole.

Inge explained that the four Afghanistan veterans were selected for the team through a qualifying round. There were many contenders, but the four winners were Jaco Albert Van Gass, Robert Stephen Young, Guy Fraser Disney, and Martin Joseph Hewitt. The expedition will be a very difficult one. The disabled veterans will ski two degrees (approximately 220 kilometers) to the North Pole – and they will have to do it faster than planned due to delays caused by weather conditions.